Figurative language in poetry
For this assignment, I chose the poem “Harlem Dancer” written by Claude McKay. It describes a dancing prostitute and McKay’s observation regarding the crowd of youths that has gathered around to be entertained by her. In this poem, McKay uses figurative language in the form of imagery and similes to describe the poem’s titular character as well as the surrounding.
The poet uses a lot of imagery throughout the poem to describe the woman and her surroundings. McKay describes “applauding youths” which the readers automatically sees friendly adults enjoying a show. However, when he says “laughed with young prostitutes”, the image of promising youths in the mind of the reader is changed. The writer lays the scene of the bar in the first lines of the poem. Another imagery that McKay uses is when he describes her “shiny curls which profusely fell”. The image that the author creates is meant to show the distinction between the woman and her audience.
One of the metaphors that caught my eyes in this poem is “the sound of blended flutes blown by black players upon a picnic day.” With this figurative speech, the poet depicts the soulfulness of the woman’s voice and also gives it meaning. He also shows the warm and comforting feeling that is associated with a picnic day. McKay uses these metaphors to give the poem’s reader a sense of the looks and voice of the dancer as well as the settings.
The two elements of figurative speech, similes and imagery, that McKay uses relate to each other as both are used to create an image in the reader’s mind about the dancer and the setting she is in. these elements contributes to the overall meaning of the poem by eliciting the reader’s emotion and helping them to form mental images of the poet’s words.